Sunday, February 12, 2012

In Memoriam: Whitney Houston 1963-2012

Singer. "Saving All My Love For You." "All at Once" "How Will I Know." "Greatest Love of All" "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)." "Didn't We Almost Have It All." "I Will Always Love You." "I'm Every Woman." "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)." "My Love is Your Love." And, for all you red-blooded Americans and/or NFL fans out there, who could ever forget this?

"What Whitney's style came down to was selling the melody and selling it hard, and selling your voice along with it--showing that you had the ability to take the chorus all the way to the moon...Whitney had the power to do that, whereas a lot of other singers don't, and have embarrassed themselves trying to."

--Music journalist JD Considine

"[Houston] possesses one of her generation’s most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."

--The New York Times.

"The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy."

--Whitney Houston

(If you want some idea of the influence this woman has had on pop music, watch American Idol sometimes. Her style dominates. As for the drugs, hey, I'm honoring the singer, not the addict. It's not like she charged admission to watch her shoot up--KJ)

6 comments:

  1. All I could think of last night when I read the news was, what a waste of a life and talent.

    But I can't say I was shocked or surprised.
    I think that must be the saddest part of this story for me.

    The second she married Bobby Brown I knew it was over for her, he was a thug and not much else.

    She was so talented. The way she styled any song to fit that voice, Oh My Goodness that voice.

    Dolly Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" and she sings it wonderfully but even she has said that she was in awe of the wonderful way Whtney sang her song.

    cheers, parsnip

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  2. @parsnip--I agree with you that it was a waste of life. A waste of talent? Insomuch that had she lived another 30 years, she could have put out much more product. After all, Carol King, who just turned 70, is still recording. But Houston also left an awful lot of well-known, and, in my opinion, mostly well-made, songs behind. Probably more than Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix put together, to name some other well-known wasted lives.

    "I Will Always Love You" is my favorite song of hers, which is why I included a link to it.

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  3. I need to stop commenting beyond, wow, good post today... I just kind of blather on and on and on... I am definitely not a writer.
    as for the waste of talent.... I think if she could have pulled herself together and decided to stay in music, in possibly the business end. she could have helped "style" and promote many new singers.
    but what the heck do I know.

    Oh well, it is all just smoke in the wind now.

    cheers, parsnip

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  4. @parsnip--Your comment was fine. Blather all you want. The last thing I want from you is self-restraint. I agree had she pulled herself together, there might have been a lot more from Whitney for years to come.

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  5. The S. S. Banner will never have a better interpretation. Love her voice. Nice tribute.

    As I grow older, I cry more easily. Had several good cries over this loss.

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  6. @Kass-Amazingly her version of the National Anthem charted--TWICE.

    A Cleveland music critic wrote that Dolly Parton now knows how Francis Scott Key feels.

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